Is climate change a bigger threat than ISIS?

World leaders gathered on Nov. 30 in Le Bourget, a commune in Paris, France, to discuss the emergency of climate change. The Paris conference ( COP21) is an opening to the United Nation’s 21st climate conference. This conference includes different sets of negotiations between leaders aiming “to forge a deal to limit global warming to 2°C.”

Both President Barack Obama and French President François Hollande are urging all participant countries to reduce emissions. They said that developed countries are primarily responsible for global warming. Obama specifically acknowledged the U.S.’s role in “contributing to the climate change crisis.” The U.S. “would take the lead in fighting against it.”

Obama also looks at the conference as a symbolic action—an “act of defiance” against recent terrorist attacks—demonstrating that the world will stand strong and remain undeterred. “Our nations share a sense of urgency about this challenge,” Obama said.

The president called for all nations to take definitive actions to stand firm against “those who would tear down our world.”

World leaders are trying, but nothing assures that they will actually keep their promises about reducing their carbon dioxide emissions.

Assistant professor of politics and international relations Michael McKoy compared climate change and ISIS, saying that they are two different types of threats. While ISIS is more of a “direct short-term” threat, he believes that the damage being caused by climate change represents a much greater long term threat. According to McKoy, “We overrate ISIS’s power,” underestimating climate change’s devastating effects.

McKoy is one of many who believes that the long term effects of climate change present a more imminent risk of destruction than the terrorist group ISIS.

In an interview Obama gave with Vox, the president clearly stated that media “absolutely” has a tendency to over-represent terrorism in comparison to climate change threats.

Due to climate change effects happening “at such a broad scale and at such a complex system,”Obama believes the media struggles to connect the public to the true danger of climate change because people here in the U.S. are not yet affected.

Press Secretary Josh Earnest later explained the reason behind Obama’s judgment that climate change is a greater threat than terrorism. Earnest said that U.S. citizens on an annual basis are confronting the direct effects of climate change on their lives through “the spread of a disease” more than through terrorism.

When pressed Earnest to answer “yes” or “no” to whether the threat posed by climate change is truly greater than the threat posed by terrorism, Earnest explained that, when looking at the “direct daily impact”on the lives of Americans, more people are and will be directly affected by climate change than by terrorism.

Earnest also mentioned that the Department of Defense “has spoken to the significant threat that climate change poses to our national security interests,” mentioning that the U.S. is unlikely to be affected as much as lesser developed countries who face greater risks.

The Migration Policy Institute says that climate change will worsen existing problems such as “food insecurity, malnutrition, poverty, the spread of disease, rapid urbanization and political instability—in areas of the world that already struggle with some of these issues.” This will encourage heavier influxes of immigration.

Secretary of State John Kerry, attending a conference in August on climate change in the Arctic, said that those who think migration motivated by extremism is a challenge in Europe today should wait to see what happens when there is an absence of basic needs like water and food and local tribes start fighting one another to survive.

Leah Anderson, associate professor and department chair of politics and international relations at Wheaton College, said poverty and inequality will increase worldwide as a result of climate change, creating more political instability and resulting in more violent responses. Conditions other than direct violence challenge “our safety, and we need to think in more complex ways,” Anderson said.

Wheaton professors have contended that overall costs to defeat the effects of climate change will be “a lot more” than costs incurred to defeat ISIS. McKoy called “the devastating effects on human population and civilization” of giving up all the necessary fossil fuels to reverse climate change “profound.”

“There’s no easy solution to the challenges here,” Anderson said, reminding that some of the most important concerns are to avoid repeating past mistakes and to have a perfect knowledge of what “the post-game plan to the conflict” should be.

“We failed in that manner in Iraq and in Afghanistan, but what’s the positive game plan for ISIS?” Anderson said that defeating ISIS does not end the entire problem and that leaders must plan ahead of what might be coming next.

McKoy called on all students to learn more about climate change and “what one must give up or change to reverse the negative effects.” When it comes to ISIS, McKoy said that the the U.S., alongside other nations, possesses all the means to defeat the terrorist group militarily and ideologically. “ISIS wants us to hate them, that’s their victory,” McKoy said. ISIS will be defeated ideologically “by trusting in the teaching of Jesus Christ which says love thy enemies.We can defeat them on the battle by loving them.”

Homeschooler in the Real World

Emma Folts, a sophomore at Wheaton College, shares her experience about her transition into college and how homeschool has both helped and hindered her.
How has your homeschool experience benefitted you, especially in your transition into college?
I think the one thing that homeschooling did that was really helpful as I entered college was that it taught me time management. As a homeschooler I had the same freedom as a college student has to put things off during the day and go see a friend instead. Since I had that experience, I knew the cost of that.
Also, personal responsibility and accountability with assignments. I feel like a lot of the other students had more expectations for gentler grading and that the professor would give them retakes or extensions, but that wasn’t something that ever happened to me in school. That learning curve wasn’t added because I never had it the other way. I think another thing was that because I was homeschooled, I was familiar with the format of teaching and then studying on my own.
Did you see any issues with your transition socially?
I think that homeschooling had two ramifications for me socially. One was helpful, one was hurtful.
It was really helpful because as a homeschooler, I had spent a lot of time realizing and developing who I was as a person and learning to recognize people who were being themselves, and those were the people I sought out as friends. Friendship as a homeschooler takes a lot more investment. I knew I was choosier with my friends which made me a lot less anxious and a lot more content.
The only real negative impact of the social bit was that I was really used to getting to choose the time I got to spend with people. As a homeschooler I spent a lot of time with people, but that time was controlled by me. As a college student, I found that you can’t really control the time you spend with people and alone time is not really available. Learning to deal with that was a lot harder than anticipated.
Any last comments on homeschool and how it has affected your college experience?
I think homeschooling is really helpful, however it does take a slightly increased amount of advocacy with your peers when you’re entering into college. I think a lot of people come in with certain assumptions about homeschool, especially students. You’re going to get a lot of, ‘oh my gosh, you don’t seem like a homeschooled person!’ [You can’t] take that too personally and explain your experience so that friends can understand it’s an important piece of you, though it might not look like the homeschooling that they’ve seen.
My encouragement to anyone who is a homeschooler transitioning into college is to realize the benefit that you have having been homeschooled, and to realize that the bit of advocacy and explaining that you need to do with your peers is totally normal and that it’s not a big deal. Once they understand your experience, it’s not something I’ve experienced being looked down on for.